Satyam set to fire another 800

With little resistance coming for the laying off process, particularly from the government, Mahindra Satyam is now gearing up for yet another round of lay-offs. This time, the axe is likely to fall on senior employees at the mid-management level.

According to sources, the company has already informed the employees about its plan to shave off a ‘significant number’ of jobs.

The scam-hit company has these employees in various categories or ‘bands’ as the company calls them. “The senior employees in the company in Bi to i-Alpha band are all set to be sent out,” a source in the company said.

The company has about 1,200 employees in these categories, ranging from general managers to vice-presidents. About 800 of these employees are likely to be laid off as part of the restructuring exercise.

When asked to clarify on the number, Hari T, the newly appointed chief people officer (CPO) of the company, said, “The number is certainly exaggerated. It would not be more than 150. There are adjustments happening after the recent rejig. As part of this, some of these employees are likely to go.”

According to him, there is excess staffing in the company at this point as there was a change in plan. “Earlier (during the days of B Ramalinga Raju), we were working on a plan to have a headcount of about 75,000 people. But, today we have about 40,000.

That is a scaling down of plans by about 50%. So, there is definitely some excess staffing at the management level too. But, we are yet to decide on how to handle the situation. However, these senior employees are not going to be placed in the virtual pool programme,” he said. 

The company recently announced a programme to keep about 10,000 employees away from work and cut their salaries significantly in order to save costs.

Unlike in the case of virtual pool, this round of lay-offs is expected to be more painful since the employees that would be shown the door handle leadership positions in their departments and draw an average salary of about Rs 25 lakh per annum.

“Things have turned really scary for us. Our jobs do not come in volumes in any company. So, for us to find jobs is really going to be different. Moreover, we are used to working for Satyam for a major part of our careers. There is no clarity as yet on the package that would be offered to us. Going by the trend so far in the company, we are preparing for an unceremonious exit,” a senior employee, who has been with Satyam for over 10 years, said.

But Hari claims the company has been doing its best to take care of the employees. “From the virtual pool, we have so far taken about 600 employees to regular work. We are working it out and our effort is to ensure that the HR available with the company is made use of. However, in some cases where there is excess staffing, we are not finding any immediate solution,” he said.